McCarville tallies 25 points, 15 boards

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Minnesota made Boston College the latest
victim of its surprising run in the Mideast Regional. Could
top-seeded Duke be next?

The seventh-seeded Golden Gophers scored 12 straight points
early in the second half to build a big lead and sent the
third-seeded Eagles packing one game after doing the same to No. 2
seed Kansas State.

Janel McCarville had 25 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks for
Minnesota in a 76-63 victory Sunday that wasn't as close as the
final margin.

Now, all that stands between Minnesota (24-8) and a trip to the
Final Four is Duke (30-3), which beat Louisiana Tech 63-49 earlier.

Tuesday night's game will be the first regional final in Gophers
history.

"I don't know what to say," said Gophers coach Pam Borton, who
beat a team coached by longtime mentor Cathy Inglese and featuring
several players Borton recruited. "This is a great moment for our
program."

Borton spent five seasons as an assistant to Inglese at Vermont
and five more at Boston College before moving to Minnesota last
year.

Lindsay Whalen added 15 points, 10 assists and six rebounds and
Kadidja Andersson scored six of her 11 during the game-changing
burst.

After starting slowly and trailing 10-2 at the first timeout,
the Gophers rode the inside dominance of McCarville and
unselfishness to the easy victory.

"It was almost like we were still on the bus, like we weren't
fully warmed up" McCarville said of the sluggish start. "It
almost took us those four minutes to warm up and after that we were
fine."

Then, the Gophers got rolling.

"I felt pretty dominant inside," said McCarville, was 9-for-14
from the field. "Shots were going my way. I was able to get a lot
of things to fall early. That kind of played into how I played
later."

Once McCarville warmed up, the rest of the Gophers followed.

"I think we just got some steals and we got some things going
early," Whalen said of the run, which ended with the Gophers ahead
46-31.

"We were able to take control of the game," she said.

Whalen led the Gophers in scoring during the regular season,
averaging almost 21, but missed seven games with a broken hand. Had
she not, Inglese said: "I thought early on ... that this was a
Final Four team. They certainly proved that tonight putting
together a very solid game."

Andersson's basket started the 12-0 run. After McCarville scored
inside and Whalen hit a free throw, Andersson added a layup off a
turnover, Shannon Bolden hit a 3-pointer and Andersson hit another
a layup.

That turned on 34-31 lead into a big hole for the Eagles (27-7).

Boston College rallied to within 53-46 with nine minutes left,
but McCarville scored five points in the next three minutes -- a
personal 5-1 run -- and the Eagles lost for the first time in 10
games.

Jessalyn Deveny led the Eagles with 18 points and Clare Droesch
had 17 and eight rebounds. Amber Jacobs, Boston College's second
leading scorer with a 15-point average, managed just seven on
1-for-8 shooting.

Borton and Inglese embraced after the game and spent several
minutes talking later, but Borton said the pregame hype was well
overblown.

"During the game, I didn't think of it one time," she said.
"Once that ball goes up, it's like the players -- you just focus,
you get in a zone and you just coach. It doesn't matter who's out
there on the court and it doesn't matter who's down there on the
other bench."